Following back surgery, Goran Reljic takes up light training for UFC return

Pushing his professional career record to 8-0, the 25-year-old Croatian defeated Wilson Gouveia via second-round TKO and earned a $75,000 Fight of the Night bonus for his efforts.

Reljic (8-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) hasn’t fought since that UFC 84 main-card bout a year ago, but his manager told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the middleweight recently recommenced light training and hopes to return to the UFC later this year.

Reljic had been slated to make his second UFC appearance in October at UFC 90. However, a back injury forced him out of his scheduled bout with Thales Leites just two weeks before the Chicago event.

“Since then we had been trying different (forms of) rehabilitation to solve his back problems,” Relic’s manager, Zoran Saric, said. “Three months ago, doctors in Croatia decided to do lower back/disc surgery. Everything went well, and Goran started light training for a month.”

Saric said he’s keeping a watchful eye on his client because Reljic likes to train and spar in mock fight conditions, and “the human body is just made to take pressure like that, specifically on the back and joints where fighters get hurt the most.”

Assuming the light training continues successfully, Reljic will then be sent to a neurologist for another evaluation before he’s cleared to train at 100 percent.

Reljic remains under contract to the UFC, and Saric said the organization remains patient.

“Goran is such a talent, and it’d be a shame if we didn’t see him fighting again,” Saric said. “So Goran is coming back soon stronger and better than ever.”

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